RELEGATION-haunted Middlesbrough look to have escaped a potential defensive crisis for Saturday's crucial home clash with Charlton Athletic.

Right-back Curtis Fleming and central defender Steve Vickers are expected to be fit after being forced off in the 1-0 home defeat by Southampton.

Republic of Ireland international Fleming damaged shoulder muscles while Vickers experienced double vision caused by a collision with the knee of skipper Paul Ince.

But head coach Terry Venables, who suffered his first Premiership defeat in the Boro hot-seat, yesterday stressed: "Neither injury is giving cause for concern.

"The two lads have played very well for us - Vickers' form has been especially pleasing. He's looked very strong."

Boro are already without three defenders through suspension this weekend.

Record £8m signing Ugo Ehiogu, who tomorrow night makes another return to former club Aston Villa as a member of Sven-Goran Eriksson's England squad for the friendly with Spain, starts a four-match ban this weekend.

And Keith O'Neill serves the second of a three-game suspension while Colin Cooper completes a two-match ban.

Boro are also lacking the rearguard experience of Gary Pallister, who is still recovering from surgery for a chronic back problem and has now been sidelined for more than three months.

l Sunderland have players worth £30m away on international duty this week and boss Peter Reid is praying they all return in one piece, writes JACK LESLIE.

Impending suspensions for John Oster, Darren Williams and Niall Quinn - added to recent bans for Michael Gray, Don Hutchison, Kevin Phillips and Alex Rae - have left the Wearsiders stretched enough.

And Reid shudders to think what might happen if any of his five senior international candidates come back carrying injuries from tomorrow's games.

Kevin Phillips and Gavin McCann (England), Kevin Kilbane (Ireland), Stefan Schwarz (Sweden) and Thomas Sorensen (Denmark) could all be in action.

Reid said: "It's a fantastic honour for any football club, especially this one, to have players away on international duty. But it's also a bit of a nervous time. You are always waiting for a phone call. So it's just a matter of keeping fingers crossed."

Welshman Oster (groin)and Republic of Ireland star Niall Quinn (back) have already been ruled out of their countries' plans because of injury and Stan Varga was last night expected to pull out of Slovakia's game against Algeria.

Striker Michael Reddy, on loan at Swindon from the Stadium of Light, is out of the Republic of Ireland Under-21 friendly against Denmark this afternoon after failing a fitness test on a heel injury.

Reid's squad has been weakened in recent weeks and the Black Cats boss is already resigned to being without Williams, Phillips and Rae against Aston Villa in next Monday's televised game .

Kilbane travelled to Dublin amid stories linking him with a move to Blackburn in a £4m swap for Damien Duff.

It was claimed that international teammate Duff, a recent target of Bobby Robson at Newcastle, was on Sunderland's transfer wanted list.

But Rovers chief executive John Williams denied the deal, saying: "There is nothing in this whatsoever.''